FLEXIBLE WORK BILL DESERVED BETTER FATE FROM LEGISLATURE

Flexible work schedules are good for both employees and employers. They let busy workers adjust their schedules so they can spend more time with their kids, and they give employers peace of mind because projects don’t necessarily get stopped midstream just because the whistle blows.

Sadly, the admirable California Workplace Flexibility Act, which would have given employees and employers the opportunity to adopt an alternative workweek schedule to their mutual liking, has been killed by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

The stickler: The state Legislature’s puppet masters, those wonderfully inflexible unions, who don’t want to change an old state law that mandates overtime pay anytime someone works for more than eight hours a day — or 40 hours a week.

Under federal law, and in most other states, switching to flex time is simple. Employers can grant employees whichever work schedules are deemed best for everyone involved regardless if the daily or weekly cap is exceeded. Not so in California, one of just three states where flex schedules are effectively prohibited by this archaic decree.

We sympathize with state Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Twain Harte, who introduced the bill — with widespread support from employers, human-resource experts and the California Chamber of Commerce, which labeled the bill a “job creator.”